


TuLANE University of Louisiana 



COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 

President WM. PRESTON JOHNSTON, LL. D. 



JUNE 30, 1898. 



TuLANE University of Louisiana. 



COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 



BY 



President WM. PRESTON JOHNSTON, LL. D. 



JUNE 30, 1898. 



hi s^-v^ 



PRESS OF 

Walle & Company 
new orleans 



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Commencement Address 



BY 



President Wm. Preston Johnston, LL. D. 

JUNE 30, 1898. 



COMMENCEMENT Day is an immemorial custom 
among American Colleges and Universities. It is 
said that it owes its title to the fact that then the 
youth leaves boyhood behind him and commences the life of a 
man. But human life is always beginning — a being and a 
becoming — and each day is a commencement for a new and 
higher existence, if we will only aspire to and strive for it. 
However this may be, Commencement is everywhere a time 
when the friends of an institution come together to note its 
progress, and by their presence to encourage the young 
aspirants in their high career. 

And thus it becomes my duty to-day, as the chief execu- 
tive officer of this institution, to give a brief statement of the 
work of the past year. In doing so I am happy to say that 
it affords every ground for encouragement in our future 
progress. 

When last summer we grasped hands in parting we had 
every reason to believe that the institution would open as 
usual and with a large increase in its numbers. We knew 



that its reputation as an institution of a very high order in its 
instruction, methods, moral elevation and rapid growth was 
reaching out to new and unexpected quarters. But you well 
remember the paralysis that struck New Orleans in September, 
when every door was barred against her. Surely then it 
seemed that this year's work was destined to failure, and that 
we might come out at its end crippled and set back in the 
great race of educational achievement. We had to lose two 
months of our session, October and November; but we opened 
with a full attendance; and by extra work, the ignoring of 
holidays and the zealous co-operation of professors and stu- 
dents, we believe that we are to-day at the close of one of the 
most successful sessions since our organization. In two de- 
partments of the University there was a slight, but not dis- 
couraging, decrease in the number of students, as was 
expected. But in the I^aw Department and in our Academic 
Colleges there has been an actual increase in numbers and a 
very marked improvement in tone and scholarly attainment. 
This has been a source of profound congratulation among 
the friends of Tulane University, and is of good omen for the 
future. Moreover, our graduates who have gone elsewhere 
to pursue special lines of study win fresh laurels in new fields, 
and write, or bring back word, that our endorsement and de- 
grees are recognized everywhere as a sure proof of attainment. 
We have, indeed, much reason for congratulation and our 
satisfaction would be unalloyed but for two misfortunes. One 
is the loss of our well -beloved Professor Hurt, upon whom 
fell suddenly the mortal stroke in the midst of his duties and 
usefulness. He was a gentleman who was perhaps better 
known to the general public than any other professor, through 



his long connection with Tulane High School as its principal 
and his strong social instincts. He was eminently genial in 
manner, sympathetic in feeling, and with a vivid intellectuality 
that made him welcome in every company. As a classical 
scholar, he left few equals, ii any, in the South; but, while 
devoted to his work, he cared little for personal distinction. 
His memory will be long cherished in this University. 

The other cloud upon our horizon is the war with Spain. 
While most of our students are of an age at which it is proper 
to hold in check the military instinct, some of the older and 
best trained of our young men had before the outbreak of the 
war allied themselves with existing military or naval organi- 
zations for local defense. Though under no obligation to 
volunteer for extra territorial service, they have felt it to be a 
duty to stand in with their comrades wherever their lot was 
cast. We would not have them hold back. I remember 
General John S. Marmaduke told me that at the outbreak of 
Sectional War, his father, Governor Marmaduke, who was a 
Union man, urged him to stay out of the conflict. He replied, 
" Father, I am a professional, educated soldier. I believe the 
South is right, and my honor demands that I should fight for 
that cause. ' ' The old patriot responded promptly and sorrow- 
fully, "My son, if honor calls you, follow honor every time. " 

And so we say to these young men, who are among our 
noblest and best, "Great as is the sacrifice, follow honor ever3^ 
time." Fortunately, there was nothing in their long line of 
studies to debar those who were Seniors from their diplomas 
and degrees, which will be conferred to-day. One, as you 
know, after mounting seven rungs of our ladder in as many 
years from the lowest class in the old High School to this 



Commencement, and winning honors at every step, leaves us 
with newly plucked laurels as victor in the Inter -collegiate 
Oratorical Contest at Oxford, Mississippi. God bless and 
care for them all. 

You have heard all around for the last two years the cry 
of business depression and the arrest of enterprise. Of course, 
we like others have suffered from causes that touched every 
interest. But while we could not make great strides or anj^ 
large expansion in our efforts, we have not stood still. It is 
a curious phenomenon of New Orleans life — and death — that 
no one here, whether millionaire, or modest giver, feels called 
on to help on the great cause of education with donation or 
devise, by building up this University. In the North, both 
East and West, a rich man does not feel that he has done his 
duty to society, or the people among whom he has lived and 
prospered, unless he contributes generously, living as well as 
dying, to some great University that is shedding its benign and 
civilizing influence over the land. Millions are poured annu- 
ally into the treasuries of Harvard and Yale. At Columbia, 
with its $20,000,000 of endowments, $2,000,000 have been 
lately given for library purposes alone, although it already 
possessed a noble library. You all know about the gift of 
Iceland Stanford, some $15,000,000, it is said; and that of Mr. 
Rockefeller of some $8,000,000 or more to Chicago University. 
And these are but a few of those who fed the stream of bene- 
ficence. One thing very noteworthy is the clear perception 
of these great business men that it is in the concentration of 
wealth and power in a great University, that the most good 
can be done. I do not say all, but the most good. If j^ou 
scatter your benefactions widely enough they fall like a faint 



7 



drizzle on the parched earth. But gathered into a proper 
aqueduct of irrigation like a great University, they can be 
turned in fertilizing streams where most needed. Mr. Edgar 
H. Farrar showed some years ago how more than $2,000,000 
had been given by this State for education, but that it was 
scattered so widely that all trace of it had disappeared. 

Mr. Tulane told me that he had given about $15,000 a 
year from the close of the war up to the date of his first 
donation here for the education of individuals ; and he added 
mournfully, "it has done no good." He then gave his 
endowment here, and I leave it for others rather than myself 
to say what good it has done. 

Now, the strange thing to which I wish to call your 
attention is the singular indifference of our rich men to the 
growth and development of this University. Is there one 
among them who will say it is not a powerful agency for 
good to our people? If so, I point him to our alumni. I point 
him to the young men who have gone out from these halls, 
stamped with our brand, (to use a phrase which cannot be 
misunderstood), and ask him where he will find a better 
record for the same number of graduates of any institution 
in all this broad land. We have been giving degrees scarcely 
more than ten years, and I ask you to look at the pulpit, the 
bar, the medical profession, the teachers, the engineers, the 
business men, the gallant volunteers of this state and city, 
and consider who stand higher than the alumni of Tulane. 
"By their fruits ye shall know them." That is the test. 

Perhaps no more striking illustration could be found of 
the growth of Tulane University and its increased hold upon 
our community and especially upon its alumni than the 



spontaneous organization during the present year of a new 
and reconstructed Alumni Association including graduates 
of all its departments. The very names of its members 
constitute a tower of strength, and the enthusiasm evinced 
betokens the heartiest co-operation in all the legitimate work 
of the University. 

But it is not only in this direct and visible way that this 
University must be judged. It is not only those who have 
won its honors by arduous work through consecutive years 
who have benefitted by its presence. As one among many 
benefactions to our people we can show five thousand pupils 
who have received free instruction in drawing, more than 
half of whom have acquired a skill that fitted them for 
increased usefulness in life as teachers, draughtsman, archi- 
tects, designers and as toilers in other industries. Such work 
makes little noise in the great world, but it enters into nearly 
every respectable home in this city in one form or another. 
It was seed sown for a bountiful harvest. 

When Tulane University was organized, there were 
dormant in this city intellectual and moral energies by the 
score that waited an awakening. Culture was here, taste 
was here, talent was here, genius was here; but they all 
shrank back from declaring themselves lest they should stir 
the ribald sarcasm of a rampant Bohemianism. What was 
needed was a nucleus that did not fear ignorant ridicule, 
that could afford to confront and scorn it, and that would 
stand like a great rock in the desert for the dignity of scholar- 
ship and literature and public morality, a rallying point 
around which all the higher spiritual influences could set up 
their standards and feel their touch with the world's best 



thought and effort. Such influences are present to-da}^ in 
this city; the3' abound here, and they are the readiest to 
admit their indebtedness to this institution for sympathy, 
encouragement, and in their first struggling efforts, the ma- 
terial aid needed for their further and full evolution. And 
it is to this that we may fairly claim has been due, in large 
measure, that wonderful enlargement and elevation of scope 
among our best women, as well as among men, that puts this 
cit3' in the front rank in a recognition of her divinest mission. 

But to be more specific as to what has been accomplished 
during the current session, I wall mention a few things. Twa 
years ago we established classes in Sugar Chemistry. The 
effort was tentative. If the people wanted them, they could 
have them. If not, they could be dropped. We were suffi- 
ciently encouraged to open, during the past year, a Sugar 
School w4th solid instruction in General Chemistrv, and such 
full and complete teaching in Mechanical Engineering as will 
fit its graduate to take charge of the largest Sugar House and 
render services to its owner worth ten times his salary^ Here- 
after, if Europe or the East, in any of their institutions, can 
fit a young man better for work in this branch, we will be 
glad to learn from him and them and to admit their superiority. 

We have established also for the next session an Art De- 
partment, by which we hope to aid those struggling students 
who with an eye single to their professions, look forward to a 
career in art, architecture, design, coloring and other branches, 
of the Fine and Industrial Arts. But this 3^ou will find with 
ampler details in our catalogue. 

One memorable act of the present year has set a final seal, 
let us hope, to the place and position of Tulane University^ as 



10 



a great University, and not a High School. It was to found 
"a great University" that Paul Tulane gave his endowment. 
It was for this that all the authorities of the University have 
planned and toiled for fourteen years. It was in view of this 
that the Supreme Court, in interpreting the act creating 
Tulane Universit}^ , said , ' ' We felicitate ourselves that the 
wa3^ to this consummation (the tax exemption) has been 
timely cut by the Legislature, so that the stream of Paul 
Tulane 's bounty shall flow on undiminished, while the children 
of our State through continuing generations shall rise and 
call him blessed. ' ' 

And now the Convention, lately adjourned, has by its 
solemn enactment ratified all preceding legislation and con- 
stitutional endorsement to this end, and clinches the nail that 
was securely driven j^ears ago. Tulane University is again 
fully recognized as a state institution, even though, instead of 
drawing on public revenues, it supplies their deficiencies. 
Hereafter, only those who cannot, or will not, learn the 
difference between a University and a Kindergarten will growl 
because we do not give them elementary instruction instead 
of fitting our young men to take the first and best places in 
the race of life. 

To men who know what the actual scope and aim of a 
University" is, the ignorant criticism levelled at it is a matter 
of profound astonishment. The University is often denounced 
because it does not do the work of the High School or even 
the Primary School. It might as well be asked to perform 
the duties of the armj^ and na\'3^ Both are useful, all indeed, 
are necessary ; but the agencies organized by societ3^ has each 
its own purpose and function. And for the University to 



11 



•attempt all, or any, of them would convert serious, valuable 
work into mere ope) a boiiffe. No, the University has its own 
sphere, well known to the best informed classes in the com- 
munity, and in that it will abide. We know what we are 
doing, and that we are doing it well; and if the public does 
-not yet see this i\x\\y , it is because higher education is com- 
parativeh" new in Louisiana. But in time the people will 
•come to our support, as they do now in Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Haven, and Chicago, where 
their great and flourishing universities are the proudest boast 
of their civic life. 

There is one matter which I have time and again ex- 
plained, but in regard to which insinuations are still whispered 
in out of the waj^ corners. It is that the University is "a rich 
man's school." That cat has nine lives and I have killed it 
at least eight times. I hope this will be its Nirvana. The 
assertion is false on its face. If there is a pure democrac}^ on 
earth it is in a University — and this University. Who are the 
great men, the leaders, in a college? Not the rich assuredly. 
It ma3" be true, as is sometimes asserted, that, in the wealthy 
Universities of the East, where the sons of many millionaires are 
congregated, they make a society of their own and exert an un- 
due influence. Such assuredly is not the case here, nor else- 
where in the South, so far as I know. The young men who excel 
in scholarship, oratory, athletics, and the God -given graces 
of personal leadership are those on whom all look with the 
most favor, and who give tone to the Universitj-. W^e have 
no "jays" here, and no snobs. 

A Universitj^ is, indeed, in the nature of things, ^'\h.&poor 
boy's school." In the first place, it grants, even in those 



12 



institutions that exact the highest fees, benefits that cost from 
four to five times as much as the tuition paid by the student. 
Very few students, except the richest, could afford to pay 
tuition that would reimburse the Alma Mater for its outlay- 
Indeed, it is for this purpose that the endowment is given — 
to make good such deficiency. No private school could equip 
itself with proper teachers and appliances for competition with 
a University, and expect to get its money back. Let us sup- 
pose a case in this city. A poor boy may get a good primar>r 
education in the primary schools, and a good high school 
education in the High School, and there he finds that he 
stands abreast, or in front of, his wealthy neighbor. He feels 
the throes and aspirations of genius throbbing and striving^ 
for growth and expression. If there were no University in 
this city, he might look with longing eyes to his dream of 
future greatness, but, as a rule he would have to turn sorrow- 
fully to the tasks of business life. On the other hand, the lad 
of inferior talents, but with a prosperous father, can pack his 
trunk and go to some distant and famous University. Who, 
then, would be the loser if this University were blotted out,, 
or cramped in its legitimate work; the rich boy, who can go- 
where he pleases, or the poor boy who can go nowhere else? 

And here let me say, it is not a question of the poor boy 
only, but of all with whom money is not abundant. The cost 
of an education in one of the great Eastern Universities is 
double or treble that of an education in Tulane University. 
The youth who spends here $400 or $500 a year, spends there,, 
from $1,000 to $1,500 a year. If the superiority of the teach- 
ing, or any other strong and reasonable preference, warrants 
the parent in this expenditure he is perfectly right to make it,. 



13 



and of this he is the proper person to judge. I believe, 
however, that he will not find this the case, except in certain 
specialties and lines in which we are always happy to concede 
their full due to more favored institutions. 

But is it, after all, the highest polic3" to send a boy away 
from his home to a distant section, unknown influences and 
alien habits of thought, just at the most critical period of his 
life? If parents, animated by all the solicitude of parental 
love, find it hard to guide or govern a 3'outh of spirit, how 
can they expect strangers to do better for him? Of course, 
there are cases where it is necessar3^ and best, but generall3^ it 
is merely an attempt to shift the responsibility from their own 
shoulders to a distant mythical influence as shadow}^ as the 
modern Mahatma. You send the 3"oung man where he is 
separated from those with whom his lot in life is to be cast; 
the continuit3^ of association, friendships, social and civic 
interests are severed; and he returns, after some 3'ears of ab- 
sence, a stranger in his owm land to pick up the broken threads 
of fraternit3^ and local interest as best he can. x\ll these count 
in the battle of life, but the3^ are disregarded when 3^ou send 
ti 3"outh to a distant institution. In the formative period of 
life there is no place for a 3'oung man like home. 

In m3^ opinion, to blot out a Universit3' from the scheme of 
civilization in acit3'like this, is to leave a great gap. How often 
are we to be told that it is mind, not matter, that wins. It is 
not the big guns, but the men behind them, that gain victories. 
Well — here, we arm and equip such men with something 
•stronger than d3mamite. Now, how is this accomplished? 
B3^ education. And what is the education that effects such 
tremendous results? Let us see. 



14 



Our fellow citizens behold here as the visible presentment 
of Tulane University ample grounds, and a group of handsome 
buildings, filled with expensive apparatus and fitted for the 
use of a numerous and learned faculty and a large body of 
superior j^oung men engaged in study. On looking further 
into the organization of what they know^ to be Tulane Univer- 
sity, thej^ will find a number of our best citizens giving their 
time and attention in gratuitous and disinterested efforts for 
its proper administration. All this constitutes an elaborate 
and expensive machinery and unless it is productive of adequate 
results is a great waste of moral and material energy. What 
is thus said of Tulane University is true of some 500 other 
universities and colleges of high or low degree in this country. 

The essential inquiry is what is all this for; what is the 
object and aim of this great organization? If we begin our 
answer by explaining the Medical Department, we are promptly 
met with the reply, "Oh, yes, we know about that." The 
Medical Department has been here nearly three quarters of a 
century. We must have doctors and pharmacists, and we 
know the advantages the students have in our great Charity 
Hospital. ' ' And the Law Department — ' 'That too, we under- 
stand. Its graduates are the flower of our bar ; it is the nursery 
of our jurists and statesmen. We are aware also of the great 
benefit it must be to our women to have Newcomb College 
where they can get a solid and systematic education and a 
training in the Graphic Arts. But why are a couple of hundred 
young men kept here in studying branches that we are toldi 
cannot be of any possible use to them in their after lives? '*^ 
If the charge were true, there would be no answer, but it is 
not. And it would be easy to reply for ourselves and the 



15 



other colleges, in a light and airy way, by a general and rather 
vague rejoinder that our students are here to get an education. 
But that is not a fair or full answer, unless we know what an 
education is, and what the education is they get here. And 
now we must speak for ourselves, and let others speak for 
themselves, agreeing or disagreeing with us, as they think fit. 
We do not stand upon the defensive, but we can show what 
we have done and are doing. 

In the first place we must put in a general and special 
denial as to the uselessness of the studies in the University. 
Those who allege it know not whereof they speak. It is not 
a case of difference in point of view. They have no point of 
view. It is usually a case of color-blindness. Then again 
we frequently find people with crude, distorted and fragmen- 
tar}^ views of life and education, passing judgment upon ques- 
tions that require experience, technical and professional 
preparation and knowledge, and a high order of intellectual 
ability. One object of education is to teach a man how to get 
a living; another is to teach him how to live. Of this latter 
object they take no account. The activities of human life, 
including self-preservation, a supply of necessaries and even 
luxuries, care of children, citizenship, the refinements of 
society, broadly marked but inextricably interwoven, are all 
within the purview of a complete education. But its highest 
ideal is in a full preparation for a right rule of conduct under 
all circumstances. The acquisition of knowledge and the 
discipline of thought and action are both required to give this 
preparation. 

Each man to his calling. The people who devote their 
lives to the theory and practice of education have a right to 



16 



claim that the}^ are the best fitted to know what it is and what 
it ought to be. And these are the teachers. 

And this brings to mind the recollection that all the im- 
provements in education, in its aims, scope and methods, have 
come from within and not from without. Teachers have 
sounded the note of reform ; the world at large has merely- 
kept step to it, while the sciolists shout back its echoes to the 
inspired voices of the oracle. Teachers are continually- ad- 
vised to do something, or to adopt some method or idea, that 
is an old story with them. Being a docile sort of people, the}' 
generall}' acquiesce in the platitudes of anj- wiseacre ; or, even 
when it is plainl}- a false note, they merel}" dissent mildly-. Still 
the common sense of the world is agreed that men who give 
their w^hole time to a matter know more about it than those 
who skim it or touch it onl}- once in a while. Hence we claim 
that teachers are entitled to be heard about education. 

What are we here for? ", asked a noted politician at a 
famous political Convention. To him the spoils of office were 
the object of life. But the question may be asked in a better 
spirit b}- anj- great organization. When we see, as I have 
said, buildings, faculty, students, and money expenditure, 
the student has a right to ask, "What are we here for?". 
"To get the best education possible," is a right and proper 
enough answer. But what is such an education? There are 
man3^ answers ; but thej- all mean, or ought to mean, about 
the same thing. It is a harmonious and equable evolution 
and developement of mind, soul and bodj-, or rather of that 
organic totalit>- that we call man. For these constitute one 
organism, and although we raay separate them in language we 
cannot separate them in fact. "Whatever" says Mr. John 



17 

Stuart Mill, "helps to shape the human being, to make the 
indiv^idual what he is, or hinder him from being what he is 
not, is part of the education." And again, "The only indis- 
peyisihlc part of the process — the mental act by which 
knowledge is acquired — is the pupil's not the teacher's; and 
indeed, that the teacher cannot, if he would, perform for the 
pupil." James Mill says, "The end of education is to render 
the individual as much as possible an instrument of happi- 
ness, first to himself and next to other beings." Fullness of 
knowledge, purit}^ and elevation of sentiment and health of 
body will come as near securing this happiness as all other 
influences combined. 

Such an education begins in the cradle and ends in the 
coffin. But there are all sorts of teachers, promoting or 
thwarting this education, besides schoolmasters and professors. 
The first lessons are learned at the breast of the mother ; truest, 
tenderest, most constant of teachers. Brothers, sisters and 
pla^miates are an incoherent, but potent, faculty. The hoodlum 
shouting his ribald oaths and drunken obscenity — advocatus 
diaboli — professor of hellishness — delivers his lectures on our 
street corners to gaping childhood, when he ought to be chained 
in his own proper laboratory with barred windows. Illustrated 
posters on our bill -boards inform our youth of the attractions 
of disreputable theatrical companies, or the terms of the next 
slugging match. The newspapers fill and thrill him with all 
sorts of pernicious fact and improbable fiction, as well as the 
real movements in the clock-work of the world. He gets it 
as it comes, good and bad. And then, if he is a work -laddie, 
and Sunday's rest is not taken from him by the saloon keepers, 
he ma}^ with some kindred spirit, find teachers in the liveoaks 



1<S 



of our parks or in watching the swirl of our great river. The 
breeze that fans his brow, the glint of the sunshine on the long 
grass, the plaj' of leaf and bough with their shadows, are kindlj^ 
monitors to a tired soul. The market, the shop, the exchange 
are all school -rooms. And in all this, how small a part does 
the schoolmaster, or the college professor, pla}^ 

There is a traditional fiction that the teacher stands in loco- 
pa vent is — in the place of the parent — to a boy. Teacher, father, 
and boj' alike must smile at this statement. There is the \&rj 
faintest shadow of parental authority delegated to a teacher, 
and but little of filial reverence accorded him b^^ the student. 
The lines of his authority are very narrowh' drawn in the most 
personal of schools, but naturally and necessarih^ so in coUeges- 
and universities where the student passes daily under the 
tuition of several men, specialists, and from term to term 
exchanges his preceptors with his studies. This is not alto- 
gether a good thing; but it cannot be helped. The student- 
loses the benefit of personal supervision and much of that 
salutar^^ influence that one strong man's constant care 
would give. But, on the other hand, he gains much. He 
receives the impress of manj- strongmen. He is thrown upon 
himself, upon the habit of independent judgment and freedom 
of thought which may, indeed, lead him into manAMntellectual 
tangles and moral misjudgements, but will also accustom him 
to find his way out of them. 

For ages it has been the struggle of the enthusiastic mentor 
to mould the mind of the novice so as to fill out his own ideal. 
The analog}' of the potter with his wheel modeling the plastic 
cla3^ into a beautiful image is a favorite figure of speech. Such 
images are godless idols. People tr\' the process with their own 



19 



children. Yet it is a false and futile plan. For if they could 
succeed in making the young mind in their own image, it 
would be the worst job possible. The Japanese gardener with 
his dwarfed trees is a better simile for such a master and the 
poor, trimmed, cramped, repressed nature of the thoroughly 
managed child. What it needs is growth, free growth, self- 
development, under a guiding hand. 

Still it is hard to convince many parents that the chief duty 
of the teacher is not to pump useless facts into empt}!- heads. 
Coaching a boy is their idea of education, and it is too much 
the tendenc}' of even good teachers in trying to help a weak 
student. But our chief business really is to make him think. 

John Stuart Mill, a great authority, says on this point, 
"The teacher's part in the process of instruction is that of 
guide, director or superintendent of the operations bj^ which 
the pupil teaches himself." "It is an approved principle of 
the science of education that it should be the aim of the 
educator not merely to train faculty, but to induce in his pupils 
the power of exercising it without his aid — in other words, to 
make the pupils independent of the teacher. ' ' The conscious- 
ness of power, at first merely rudimentary, gains strength 
until it is developed into the habit of independent, mental self - 
direction. I may add, too, that the habit of clear, rapid, de- 
cided, independent thought is the highest form of intellectual 
education. 

But as the moral evolution of the youth must be trusted 
mainly to home influences and the environment, and, as the 
chief duty of the faculty is the intellectual training of the 
3^outh, so, to a large extent, his physical culture also must be 
incidental and dependent on his own volition. We cannot, in. 



20 



Prench fashion, march him out to the play -ground and his 
games, and we cannot safely keep him from them. The best 
we can do is, in some measure, to advise and aid. But what 
the best physical culture is cannot be called a settled question, 
and we must ask indulgence if we do not jump with ever}^ 
new athletic fad, or adapt our views to prefessional or semi- 
professional standards. Health, longevity and ability to 
attend to the main business of life must be regarded as well 
as muscle, in the nurtnire of the body. But all this will right 
itself. The evolution which aims at the highest attainable 
results, however, is self -development under the guiding light 
and influence of a superior motive. Where this is the rule 
there should be the least possible compulsion, restraint or 
urgency by the authorities. And yet all must see how hard 
this makes the task of keeping a large body of high-spirited, 
restless students, full of 3^outhful energy, in a beaten track 
toward a determinate goal. Yet this is what a facultj^ is 
called on to do. 

What are we here for? The evolution of organic man has 
been given as the answer. Here is the student with his 
heaven -bestowed powers and endowments to be trained, and 
here are the agencies to train them ; the teacher, the studies 
or implements of training, the method employed in their use. 
It has been seen that while the faculty are the right persons 
to determine and direct the studies to be pursued and their 
coordination and sequence, still in this rounded work, the 
student, not the faculty, mUvSt play the larger part. Most of 
his moral and physical evolution, even more than his intellec- 
tual development, must be left to the student himself. It is 
made, it is true, under the light of his intellectual progress. 



21 



His entrance into college life is as if one were to come into a. 
vast and dimly lighted chamber, "this majestical roof fretted 
with golden fire." In it are set up the seven golden candle 
sticks of perfect knowledge; and, as the tapers are successive- 
ly lit on each, a gradual illumination fills the room with a. 
radiance and glor3' that bring out all its splendors ; for the 
name of this chamber, whose secrets are revealed to him, is 
'* the universe." And ever^^ good thing and every evil thing 
comes clearly to his sight. And then if the atmosphere,, 
which is his moral environment, is pure and health}^ not 
onl}' does he see truth, but the will power is given him to be 
and do what is great and good and noble and holy. Here, as 
I have said, we believe in free development and the culture 
of independent thought and will. We may sometimes sweeten 
the moral atmosphere with incense, fragrant, stimulating, and, 
if not surcharged, wholesome. But we cannot manufacture 
any vital air for the human soul like the breath of Heaven 
and we are not creators to breathe in a man's nostrils the 
breath of life. Our part is to have a care that no foul con- 
tagion prevails to poison the j^oung souls under our charge. 
If I have said so much of free growth in the whole nature of 
the student, it is because it is with us a fundamental principle. 
It is not a proper function of the schoolmaster or professor 
to mix his mathematics with theology-, or his linguistics with 
the catechism. To each household there is a head to w^hom 
is confided by a higher power than man's the responsibilit3^ 
for the religious training of its inmates. This familj^ altar is 
such as the head of the house chooses to make it. Even in 
Oriental despotisms the autocrat takes care not to touch 
that tender spot, the human conscience. The Ameer of 



99 



Afghanistan leaves his religion to Moslem, Hindoo, and 
Christian alike. When he does not, woe to him or to the 
land he misgoverns. 

When our broad-minded founder, Mr. Tulane, directed 
that this University' should be *' Christian, but not sectarian," 
it was in recognition, not contravention, of this idea. And 
why? Because to be " Christian," it must, within its scope, 
be administered in the spirit of the broadest charity and fra- 
ternity, so that its pupils and patrons, by whatsoever name 
called, be it Jew or Gentile, Greek or Barbarian, may feel 
that they are here, not upon toleration, but on an equal foot- 
ing, and with equal rights. And such has been our course 
of conduct; and without entering into details, I can say it 
has been fully justified. 

Among the most essential principles of Christianity are, 
first: a clear perception of the infinite distance between Divine 
perfection and human frailty, between God and man. Second: 
Self-respect, which means the recognition that our bodies and 
souls are vessels in which the Divine nature has condescended 
to abide. Third: the rejection of brute force, so far as possi- 
ble, as an element of control and the substitution of charit}- or 
love for our neighbor, (the scientists call it altruism) ; and 
fourth: humility or reverence for the lowly. Conformity to 
this ideal is very high culture ; as high as we know how to 
strive for, and for this we strive. 

But among the fundamental principles, "Christian, but not 
sectarian, ' ' on which society rests, the first is truth. To ascer- 
tain it, science inquires of nature, and philosophy of spirit. 
We can trust to the continual prevalence of truth as surely as 
to the sun's rising, though we cannot say that either may not 



23 



"be hidden b}' clouds to-morrow. An estimable man of busi- 
ness said to me not long ago, "I can trust nobod\' in business. ' ' 
I wondered. "You keep a bank account, I suppose?", I in- 
quired. "Oh yes." "Then," said I, "I think a^ou must 
trust a great many people, for a rogue among them would 
spoil 3^our business." I felt that I had him, and I pushed 
the matter. "You travel a good deal on railroad trains. Did 
you ever think how many people you trust when you step 
aboard for your journe}^?" Civilization depends on this mu- 
tual confidence. The savage does not feel it. If it were not 
for dependence on ever3^body doing his part, our belief that 
all the myriad hands about us are busy with their rightful 
work, life in a city would not be tolerable. A desert would 
be a safer and preferable abode. What would become of our 
lights, water supply, roads, transportation, and commerce? 
What of our pleasure in meeting friends in social life? The 
duties may be poorly done, but failures from faithlessness are 
few. 

But enough of this ; human society is based upon our 
confidence in one another, that men will be true in word and 
act. It is one sign of a gentleman — and a gentleman repre- 
sents the high -water mark of civilization — not to be unduly 
suspicious of men and'their motives. I am not recommending 
indiscriminate confidence an3^ more than indiscriminate alms- 
giving. One need not abandon the use of his ej^es or his com - 
mon sense. But we can be loyal and trustful; the^^ are cor- 
relatives. And college association makes men so. There is 
a discipline of honor, a touch of the elbow in civil life, as well 
as in compan}^ drill. And college life gives this. The true 
college spirit is a sense of honor, sprung from the traditions of 



24 



chivalry and sublimated b\^ Christianity. And this is the best 
outcome of college education. 

It is a great mistake to think it leaves a young man en- 
feebled for the battles of life. He who is animated b3' it bears. 
the same relation to a ffellow creature fed only on the crafty 
maxims of self-interest and personal gain that the eagle 
soaring in the upper air does to the jackdaw hiding his scraps. 
of tinsel, or that the war horse does to the fox whose only 
power is to drag a cunning trail. 

The college life is a glorious thing for those youths who are 
permitted to have it and who enter into its spirit. It is the 
porch to a temple w^hose foundations are in the deeps and 
whose vaulted roof reaches the heavens. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS V 

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